In the morning I went to work. I had some meetings in the morning. I had to go. I did the meetings, which of course took longer than I thought. Then I ran to take the birds to the vet. The vet was about 90 minutes away. On the way to the vet I had to get gas. The birds did not like the ride.
I rushed back from the vet just in time to do another quick meeting at work. When it was done it was 3:30 PM. I figured I needed to leave home by 5 PM to get to my plane on time. I still had to deposit my paycheck (I needed that cash for the vacation), do the top ten list (I couldn't miss that!) and pack (of course). I had 90 minutes. My first stop, the ATM machine to deposit my paycheck.
But horrors! I realized that I did not have my ATM card! I further realized that when I had stopped to get gas on the way to the vet the attendant had accidentally kept my card, and I hadn't noticed! Luckily the place I had gotten gas was only about 5 miles away. I rushed there. Turns out, the ever so helpfull attendant had, for my protection, put the card into the lockbox. Nobody there could open it. I made them call the manager and complained I had to catch a plane in an hour. The manager would indeed drive back into the station to get my card out. But I couldn't wait around. I said I'd drop back by on the way out of town. I had already wasted at least 30 minutes because of the card thing. I was very crunched for time.
So I ran home. I had to finish the monthly top ten, I had never missed one since I had started it. So I scrambled to do the count, and I cut a few corners, but I got the results out. It had taken me at least another 40 minutes though. I was way late. I still hadn't packed. So I scrambled and just tossed everything I could see intobags for the trip. I ended up with four bags. A backback, a soft briefcase like thing, a soft suitcase type thing, and finally a big bag with my sleeping bag and tent inside. Let me just say now, it was too much. It was way heavy. On the oter boundary of what I could carry by myself. Probably too many clothes. The 20 pounds of books probably didn't help much either, but hey, I needed reading material!
So I then headed into the car and picked up my ATM card. But by then I was worried about making the plane on time. I did not stop to deposit my check, because I would have had to backtrack a few miles to do it. I figured I'd just make due with what I had. And just in case, I had brought some envelopes and my checkbook and stuff so that maybe I could deposit it by mail. This would come back to bite me.
I raced to the airport. The radio was saying that flights out of Newark were delayed. But when I called the airline, they siad it was still on time. I got to the airport with about 30 minutes left before the flight was due to take off. I exausted myself dragging my bags. Since I had so many bags and I didn't want to drag them any further than I had to, I went to the normal check-in line instead of straight to the gate. I of course should have gone straight to the gate. There was a huge line at the check-in. I waited there 20 minutes. Then finally I pulled someone aside and they told me to just run to the gate. I attempted that as best I could carying the bags I was. When I got there, there was still a big line to get seat assignments. They were still boarding. I had made it.
Once I chgecked my bags, got on the plane and got settled, the Captain came on and told us all that the tower had just announced a two hour "weather hold" on all flights leaving Newark. In fact it turned out to be almost three hours before the plane left the ground. I had rushed and gone crazy for no good reason. And I hadn't deposited my check. Grrrrr....
I finally arrived at the airport in San Fransisco about 1 AM local time. according to my plan, the only arrangements I had made were for the plane tickets and the rental car. o hotels, nothing. I would wing it. So first I got the rental car. They gave me a Daewoo. I have no idea what the experts say, but Sam has determined that a Daewoo will not be in contention next time he buys a car.
Then I went to look for a place to stay the night. I ended up driving over an hour south on Route 101 before I found a place with vacancies that I could stay at. Well, at least a place whose name I recognized. I did pass a few scary looking hole in the wall type motels. I decided that I was not tired enough yet to consider any of those.